Walmart launches pre-Black Friday price war

Walmart is promising to match some of Target and Best Buy’s top Black Friday deals — a full week before Thanksgiving.

“That’s insane,” Stan Pohmer, a Twin Cities retail analyst, said of Walmart’s overt taunting of Target and Best Buy, among others. “They’re going after the other big guys. They’re taking the fight to them.”

Shoppers might cheer bigger and juicier deals, but the move could dilute their passion for Black Friday, that modern day-after-Thanksgiving tradition, which now kicks off ever earlier Thanksgiving night.

It’s tough for shareholders, too. Best Buy’s stock fell 11 percent Tuesday after the company warned it would mark down more merchandise to compete.

“Obviously, we are watching developments on a day-by-day basis,” Best Buy CEO Hubert Joly told analysts, hinting that the electronics giant is preparing to respond.

“We need to be in the game, so that’s what we’re going to do,” Joly said, as he discussed Best Buy’s third-quarter results.

Officials at Minneapolis-based Target Corp. hasn’t offered a reaction to Walmart’s broadside but hinted at one later this week.

Pohmer said Target can’t ignore the Black Friday price war — and won’t.

“They have to make at least a token response,” Pohmer said. “But if (Walmart) is doing this … Friday and Saturday, it doesn’t give them a lot of time to respond.”

Arkansas-based Walmart is the world’s largest retailer but has had its struggles lately, leading it to woo Black Friday bargain shoppers with unusual zeal. Last week, Walmart promised that customers waiting in line on Black Friday for certain “doorbuster” specials would be assured of getting one.

“Traditionally, there aren’t any rainchecks (on Black Friday), it’s based on stock available,” said Pohmer. “If you’ve got a super-duper special going on for Black Friday, you either get there when it’s in stock or you won’t get it. That drove the sense of urgency.”

Then on Tuesday, Walmart went further to undercut its big-box rivals — even calling them out by name in its announcement.

Starting at 8 a.m. Friday, Walmart said, it will “match selected Black Friday offers from Target, Toys ‘R’ Us and Best Buy one week early.”

Duncan MacNaughton, Walmart’s chief marketing officer, said in a statement: “Black Friday is our Super Bowl and we plan to win.”

Walmart knows what extreme deals Target and Best Buy are offering because the Black Friday ads already have been leaked and are circulating online.

“Until about five years ago, stores tried to keep it under wraps pretty diligently,” said Richard Seesel, a Wisconsin-based retail analyst. “This is the downside of letting those after-Thanksgiving prices leak out early.

“This might cause some of those stores to go back to the old way, of trying to keep those prices a secret, until they’re meant to be public.”

Walmart was careful to say it would match “selected” deals, not every Black Friday deal. But it still stunned the industry.

“I have just been watching this thing somewhat in awe,” David Strasser, a retail analyst with Janney Capital Markets, told Best Buy’s executive team.

Earlier this year, both Target and Best Buy began to match prices offered by other retailers, including some online retailers. But those price-matches didn’t usually include limited-time offers, like Black Friday specials.